A small pilot study finds evidence suggesting that yoga could help pregnant women with significant depression reduce the severity of the mood disorder.
Lead author Cynthia Battle says she learned in prior research that depressed pregnant women are often reluctant to use medications and some also have difficulty engaging in individual psychotherapy. When she asked them what other treatments they might find appealing, some mentioned yoga.
“This is really about trying to develop a wider range of options that suit women who are experiencing these kind of symptoms during pregnancy,” says Battle, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior in the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a psychologist at Butler and Women & Infants hospitals.
“What we don’t want to do is have people fall through the cracks.”
‘Encouraging Results’
A few small studies have also suggested that yoga and mindfulness-based approaches could help prevent or treat depression during pregnancy.
Battle’s study, published in the journal Women’s Health Issues, is an initial test of whether a 10-week program of prenatal yoga, structured to be similar to yoga programs available to pregnant women in many communities, could be feasible, acceptable, safe, and effective for mild to moderately depressed women.
“What we feel like we’ve learned from this open pilot trial is that prenatal yoga really does appear to be an approach that is feasible to administer, acceptable to women and their healthcare providers, and potentially helpful to improve mood,” Battle says. “We found what we think are very encouraging results.”
Importantly, this pilot study was not a blinded randomized controlled trial, which would provide stronger, more rigorous evidence, Battle says. She and second author Lisa Uebelacker have since led a small randomized controlled trial with similarly positive results that are now being written up for publication.




